pronubus
Pronunciation
Forms
prōnubus (feminine prōnuba, neuter prōnubum); first/second-declension adjective[1]
Etymology
It is from Latin prō- + nūbō (“to marry (of a woman)”) + -us.[2][1][3] The grammarian Eutyches already derived it from nūbō.[4] The TLL takes the feminine prōnuba, the woman who served at a wedding, as the original word, with the masculine noun and the adjective as later formations.[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
The feminine is found first in Varro, as reported by Servius,[3][5] and in Catullus,[5] for the married woman who attended the bride and led her to the bridal chamber.[2][5]
Semantic evolution
The poets made the goddesses of marriage prōnubae: Juno above all, who in the Aeneid gives the sign with Earth when Dido and Aeneas come to the same cave (prima et Tellus et pronuba Iuno dant signum).[2] Virgil, Ovid and Lucan turned the image round and gave hostile powers the role, Bellona or a Fury presiding over an ill-omened marriage.[2][5] The word could also be used of the wedding torch.[2]
The adjective “of marriage, bridal” belongs to later Latin: Tertullian has a pronubus anulus, a betrothal ring, and pronubi canes for pimps,[5][6][7] and Claudian speaks of a bridal night and a bridal torch.[5][6] The masculine noun, the groomsman who stood by the bridegroom, rendering Ancient Greek παράνυμφος (paránumphos), appears in the Anthologia Latina, in Lampridius and in the Vulgate.[5][6][3] In British medieval Latin it also meant a procurer or pimp.[8]
Timeline
- 116–27 BC – Varro explains prōnuba as the attendant of the bride.[3][5][4]
- 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus has prōnubae in a wedding poem.[5][3]
- 70–19 BC – Virgil calls Juno pronuba at the union of Dido and Aeneas.[2][3]
- c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses the adjective for a betrothal ring.[5][7][3]
- c. 400 AD – Claudian uses it of a bridal night and a bridal torch.[5][6][3]
- 390–406 AD – The Vulgate uses pronubi for the bridegroom's companions.[5][3]
- 1419 – A British record uses it for a pimp.[8]
Meanings
Adjective
Noun
- (masculine) A groomsman, the friend who attended the bridegroom.[5][6][9]
- (feminine prōnuba) A married woman who attended the bride and led her to the bridal chamber.[2][5]
- (feminine, of goddesses) A goddess presiding over a marriage, especially Juno; of hostile powers, Bellona or a Fury.[2][5]
- (Medieval Latin) A procurer, pimp.[8]
Usage notes
Servius reports that Varro called prōnuba a woman who had married before, and to one husband only,[4][5] and Festus that prōnubae were given to brides who were marrying for the first time.[4][5] Isidore of Seville equates the word with paranympha.[4]
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
- ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
- ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
- ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.